AI infrastructure company Luchen Technology has become the first firm to officially discontinue use of DeepSeek’s API, citing cost concerns. The decision comes just days after DeepSeek reported a theoretical profit margin of 545% for its online system. Luchen Technology announced March 1 that it would halt DeepSeek API services within a week and advised users to use their remaining balance. Sina Tech’s Weibo post noted that while DeepSeek has open-sourced many inference components, third-party MaaS providers struggle to match its official costs. Luchen’s founder, You Yang, has openly questioned DeepSeek’s cost structure, emphasizing the financial strain on smaller cloud providers.